The Rank Organisation
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|
| Public | |
| Industry | Entertainment |
| Fate | Acquired |
| Successor | The Rank Group |
| Founded | April 23, 1937 |
| Defunct | February 7, 1996 |
| Headquarters | London, England, UK |
|
Key people
|
J. Arthur Rank (Chairman) |
The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment conglomerate founded by industrialist J. Arthur Rank in April 1937. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in Britain, owning production, distribution and exhibition facilities. It also diversified into the manufacture of radios, TVs and photocopiers (as one of the owners of Rank Xerox). The company name lasted until February 1996 when the name and some of the remaining assets were absorbed into the newly structured the Rank Group Plc and in the years that followed asset stripping and streamlining of the business has left it a shadow of its former self, with all their remaining operating interests now in gambling.
The company logo, the Gongman, first used in 1935 by the group's distribution company General Film Distributors and seen in the opening titles of the films, became an iconic film emblem.
J. Arthur Rank, born in Kingston upon Hull, UK, was already a wealthy industrialist through his father's flour milling business, Joseph Rank Ltd, when he made his somewhat unlikely start in film-making, financing short religious subjects in line with his Methodist beliefs. From these modest origins, the British film company emerged in 1937 as Rank sought to consolidate his film-making interests.
The company grew quickly, largely through acquisition. Significant developments included:
By the late 1940s J Arthur Rank (or the Rank Organisation as it was now called), owned:
A loose collective of film makers was established under the banner of Independent Producers Ltd., employing some of Britain's greatest directors, such as Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes, I Know Where I'm Going!), David Lean (Brief Encounter, Great Expectations), Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat (I See a Dark Stranger, The Happiest Days of Your Life), Ken Annakin (Holiday Camp) and Muriel Box (The Seventh Veil).
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